Private Manned Mars Mission Gets First Sponsors

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A Dutch company that aims to land humans on Mars in 2023 as the
vanguard of a permanent Red Planet colony has received its first
funding from sponsors, officials announced this week.

Mars
One plans to fund most of its ambitious activities via a
global reality-TV media event, which will follow the mission from
the selection of astronauts through their first years on the Red
Planet. But the sponsorship money is important, helping the
company — which had been self-funded for the last 18 months — get
to that point, officials said Wednesday (Aug. 29).

"Receipt of initial sponsorship marks the next step to humans
setting foot on
Mars," Mars One founder and president Bas Lansdorp said in a
statement. "A little more than a year ago we embarked down this
path, calling upon industry experts to share in our bold dream.
Today, we have moved from a technical plan into the first stage
of funding, giving our dream a foundation in reality."

"Mars One is not just a daring project, but the core of what
drives human spirit towards exploration of the unknown. We are
privileged to be a supporter of this incredible project," said
Dan Petrovic, general director of Dejan SEO.

Mars One aims to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016
and 2020 that will build a habitable outpost on the Red Planet.
The first four astronauts will set foot on Mars in 2023, and more
will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to
return these pioneers to Earth.

Company officials say they've talked to a variety of private
spaceflight firms around the world and have secured at least one
supplier for every major piece of the Mars
colony mission. The corporate sponsorship money will be used
mostly to fund the conceptual design studies provided by the
aerospace suppliers, each of which require 500 to 2,500 man-hours
to complete, officials said.

Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the
first four humans on the Red Planet. The company hopes the "Big
Brother"-style reality show will pay most of these costs. The
televised action is slated to begin in 2013, when Mars One begins
the process of selecting its 40-person astronaut corps.

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